1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a bearing/stator set retainer structure, which facilitates reworking and is able to fix both the bearing and the stator set at the same time to simplify the assembling process and prolong lifetime of the fan.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, all kinds of electronic information products (such as computers) have been more and more popularly used and widely applied to various fields. There is a trend to increase processing speed and expand access capacity of the electronic information products. Therefore, the electronic components of the electronic information products have operated at higher and higher speed. When operating at high speed, the electronic components generate high heat at the same time.
With a computer host taken as an example, the central processing unit (CPU) in the computer host generates most of the heat generated by the computer host in operation. In case the heat is not efficiently dissipated, the temperature of the CPU will rise very quickly to cause deterioration of the execution efficiency. When the accumulated heat exceeds a tolerable limit, the computer will crash or even burn down in some more serious cases. Moreover, for solving the problem of electromagnetic radiation, the computer host is often enclosed in a computer case. This will affect the dissipation of the heat generated by the computer host. Therefore, it has become a critical issue how to quickly conduct out and dissipate the heat generated by the CPU and other heat-generating components.
Conventionally, a heat sink and a cooling fan are arranged on the CPU to quickly dissipate heat. One side of the heat sink has multiple radiating fins, while the other side of the heat sink is free from any radiating fin. The surface of the other side of the heat sink directly contacts the CPU for conducting heat to the radiating fins. The radiating fins serve to dissipate the heat by way of radiation. In addition, the cooling fan cooperatively forcedly drives airflow to quickly carry away the heat.
A conventional cooling fan includes a base seat. A hollow bearing cup protrudes from the base seat. A bearing is disposed in the bearing cup in a press-fit manner. A stator set is mounted around the bearing cup in a press-fit manner. A fan impeller is rotatably disposed assembled on the bearing cup. The fan impeller has multiple blades radially extending from a hub of the fan impeller, and a shaft rod fitted and located in the bearing. When the fan impeller operates, the bearing cup and the bearing will shake and swing to shorten the lifetime of the fan. Also, the stator set may detach from the bearing cup due to the shake in operation. In order to solve the problem of shake, it is necessary to use a retainer member to fixedly locate the bearing or the stator set. This complicates the assembling process and increases the cost. Moreover, after the bearing is fixed with the retainer member, it is impossible to rework the retainer member. This makes it impossible to check and repair the components during the manufacturing and assembling process. Therefore, the conventional device has the following shortcomings:
1. It is impossible to rework the retainer member.
2. The assembling process is complicated.
3. The manufacturing cost is increased.
4. The lifetime is shortened.